Alison Bree and Dave Franco unite on many levels in an amusing horror film about emotional lack of distance.
After Coralie Fargeat’s visceral The Substance about ageism and beauty standards made a splash at last year’s Cannes, there is no denying: Body-horror is here to stay. The trend goes towards socially and politically conscious, darkly humorous films. One prime example at this year’s Sundance is Emilie Blichfeldt’s Ugly Stepsister. Another, if less refined one is Michael Shanks’ Together. At its core lies a disturbing scenario some might have witnessed among their own friends: There are two people in love who after a while basically become one item. When it happens to superstars, the tabloids call it “Bennifer” or “Brangelina”.
Sounds like a proper name for a movie monster? Director-writer Shanks puts this monster on screen in a plain-people formation. Dave Franco and Alison Bree play Tim and Millie. She is a schoolteacher eager to settle down into small-town life. He is a failed musician who still believes he can make it big. Their antithetically ideas of a happy shared life – middle-class comfort vs rockstar life on the road – make them embarrassingly ill-suited for each other. All their friends see it, but the two protagonists don’t. So they “take the plunge”, as their final Facebook post says, in a pleasant rural era.
A first foreshadowing of the titular theme of inseparable ties is the rotting corpse of a “rat-king”. If you wonder what that is and want nightmare fuel, read up on how rats can can become inseparable when their tails entangle. This is a preview for what lies in store for the main characters. Tim’s unpleasant discovery of the rat-king in their new home hints to the domestic discordance at the heart of the horror. With an edge of caustic humour, the observant plot reveals their relationship as highly dysfunctional. Their co-dependency turns frighteningly physical after a hike leads them to a dilapidated church.
This sinister place was once home of a new-age cult. That cult took Plato’s retelling of the monstrous Greek myth about humans being conjoined creatures split in two to a whole new level. Whatever powers reside in that place only waited for the couple. Soon they are irresistibly drawn to another with violent physical contortions. Letting go of their respective partner becomes impossible as their skin and bone fuse. Cheap special effects hardly spoil the fun of this organic allegory for losing yourself in another person. And if that doesn’t sound scary enough: Imagine it all with the Spice Girls playing.
A nice meta-textual touch is Bree’s and Franco’s real-life relationship. Their authentic dynamic keeps the sarcastic premise from becoming ridiculous. Behind the supernatural elements lies an all too common social pressure to monogamy and martial exclusivity. Portraying this ancient concept of coupledom as an actual religion aptly sums up societal idolisation of traditional ways of life. After all, the bible refers to marriage as “become one flesh”. Soon it takes an electric knife for the protagonists to keep their distance. What the directing lacks in subtlety and refinement, it makes up for with its disrespect for stifling traditionalism and bloody fun.
- Director: Michael Shanks
- Screenplay: Michael Shanks
- Year: 2025
- Distribution | Production © WME
